Erik Erikson Given Book Award for 'Gandhi's Truth'

Erik H. Erikson '36, Professor of Human Development, will accept the National Book Award today in the Philosophy and Religion category for his work Gandhi's Truth.

Erikson's prize, a $1000 grant, is one of seven presented annually since 1950 to American writers for works published the preceding year.

Robert Lowell, Emerson Lecturer on English Literature, and John Womack Jr., assistant professor of History, were also nominated for National Book Awards.

Melcher Award

Gandhi's Truth, which also won the $1000 Melcher Award last week for its role in advancing religious liberalism, is a study of Mahatma Gandhi's physcho-logical make-up and his doctrine of militant nonviolence.

Erikson said yesterday that the award came unexpectedly, since he felt that the total impact of the book had not yet been realized.

Erikson, a leader in the field of psychoanalysis, has also written Childhood and Society and Young Man Luther.